Jack Keating, Staff Reporter The Province

Bill Henderson's objectivity as a musical expert for singer Sarah McLachlan was called into question yesterday because his daughter is a backup singer for the pop star.

"The job is to be objective and I take it seriously," Henderson told Justice Bruce Cohen in B.C. Supreme Court.

Camille Henderson, 28, a former member of the West End Girls group, has for the last five years been a backup singer for McLachlan when she has been on tour.

Darryl Neudorf, 34, claims he co-wrote the music for Vox, Steaming, Strange World and Sad Clown on McLachlan's 1988 debut CD, Touch, and is suing McLachlan and Vancouver-based Nettwerk Productions for copyright infringement and a share of royalties. He also claims he co-produced Touch and was not adequately paid.

Neudorf was credited with "pre-production co-ordination and production assistance" on the Touch CD liner notes. Greg Reely was named as Touch producer on the liner notes.

Jonathan Simkin, Neudorf's lawyer, named six prominent producers -- David Foster, Bob Ezrin, Jeff Lynne, Glen Ballard, Pierre Marchand and Carmen Rizzo -- as examples of producers who co-write songs and get credit for it.

It was to counteract Henderson's argument that uncredited song-writing is often a part of a producer's job.

"The instrumental hook on Vox is not part of the song," said Henderson. "That's part of the arrangement.

"A song is different from an arrangement, from a recording. The song will basically be the same but the arrangement will be different.

"The song survives far better and lasts a lot longer than arrangements and performances do."

The hearing continues.